Hooves on the Turf

Day 5 in Austin was March 21, 2009. The morning began with a ride to the northern part of the eastern town, where five members of Balmorhea, an instrumental six-piece from Austin, were waiting to play a few songs for our video series, Secret Garden.

We headed downtown and went to Red Eyed Fly to catch Harlem Shakes. This band’s got a ton of good things going, but I’m still not sold on the lead voice. I remember seeing them at Southpaw eons ago and thinking the same thing.

Other than wanting to see what Harlem Shakes has been up to (I hadn’t seen them since their reunion), I thought it might be nice to catch up with Princeton.

The Kivel brothers are really good at writing songs that are catchy and fun, yet with plenty of thoughts and attention to details in them (I love that new one about loving the man who comes home). But there is probably a point in what the person standing next to me told me during the set, “They’re adorable, but I’m not sold”. I think that if they just learn to relax and have fun on stage without appearing stressed out, their live shows will do justice to their music; some of this is evident when they play “Shout It Out”, a song where they let loose a little. The brothers have seemed a little under pressure the last few times I’ve seen them, and that doesn’t appear to help, since to create a good show for others you must immerse yourself in it first. I’m sure they’ll mature as a live act very quickly though.

On the other hand, I’ve noticed drummer David Kitz is always at ease when he’s on stage, and that gives him a pleasant presence.

Outside, more parties were going on.

People were in line for yet another day.

I ran into Parenthetical Girls waiting in the VIP line there. They have such awesome faces!

We headed north to Waterloo Cycles, a bike shop that was hosting shows outside. One Happy Island was playing.

Mexico City’s Hello Seahorse was next and they sounded good.

I’m on an ongoing hunt to find new cool bands from Mexico, or any other Latin country, and I think Hello Seahorse was my first real success. I’m obviously ignorant when it comes to bands from Latin America, though I already like some hip hop artists and have been a fan of Gotan Project for a while, so if you have recommendations, email me; by “cool” I mean bands that aren’t stuck with the 80’s-to-90’s idea of a traditional rock band.

My Brooklyn friends swore by The Besties, who came on next.

The sound was a little muddled, and I thought they were just okay. I need to give ‘em another try. The women seemed to be the main singers, but I preferred the male voice (guitarist Richard Francis), especially when he did a little test during sound check.

We went back to the east side, to an awesome place called Moose Lodge, which was truly in the middle of nowhere. Once again the events lined up for the evening were the doings of the coolest DIY kids we encountered in Austin, a circle of musicians based around the band Quiet Hooves, of Athens Georgia. Inside, this band with scarry masks was playing.

Outside, it was all sweet breeze and green grass and awesomeness.

Prince Rama of Ayodhya played on the balcony.

This isn’t exactly my favorite kind of music on record, but in person they sounded excellent.

I was sold, which is why I left my nice green grass to catch their set.

It’s no surprise that my real reason for making it out there was to see Tune Yards one more time. Here is Merrill watching Prince Rama:

She went on next. It wasn’t an ideal setup for her because there wasn’t enough volume to have her looped samples as loud as she wanted, but it was still pretty freaking good.

She gave it all.

She always does!

Quiet Hooves played next.

They were giving out free CDs and they gave me a whole bunch, which I’ve yet to listen to. I guess I’ll have a more reliable opinion of the music when I get to those recordings (because the sound setup was very DIY indeed and it was hard to tell the details apart), but for now, I can say that their set was pretty rocking. I loved it 30 seconds into it. I think they were probably one of my very few discoveries that I hope to look further into.

On our way out, more bands were playing inside.

We were back at our base, Todd P’s patio party at Ms. Bea’s, which was the most happening place by the end of it all.

Going there was always like coming up for air. It was the last night, and Crystal Stilts were playing.

It was a festival of its own.

Our two new really nice friends from Austin told us they didn’t mind us Brooklynians at all: hi!

We left Ms. Bea’s to go to a private house party These United States was playing.

It was all unamplified by the fire, so of course it was awesome. The cops gave the hosts a second warning, so they had to take it indoors for the last song. They played “Speed of Light”, which was a strong finish.

The Lonesome Heroes, from Austin, played there next. They were good but I was hoping to like them a whole lot more (Rich Russell grew up in Greenpoint and he’s not even Polish!). The only issue I couldn’t quite move past is that Landry McMeans’ breathy singing style just doesn’t feel natural; I really want to hear her own voice some time. The rest of it was fun and good, and they’re really nice to be around.